m. l. beals writes about the art of fiction. Occasional jokes.

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Terror Tactile

I am a little obsessed with the physical objects one finds in fiction. Hermione’s time turner in Harry Potter, the comic book in Station Eleven, Breq’s serviceable tea set in Ancillary Justice; pretty things which characters can hold. Things that reflect on the person holding them, that deepen our connection to a character.

I like making things. When I was a kid, my dad made our garage into a wood shop and I was allowed to make things with the scraps, so I always felt capable. I made a doll because no one else made an action figure of my favorite NPC in a Nintendo 64 flight simulator. My brother and I made lightsabers out of tree branches and wailed on each other through the dunes at Ocean Shores. And in 1999, I stripped the bark from a plum tree branch and scribed Harry Potter spells into the handle with a little electric wood-burner. The more work I put into it, the more it felt like magic.

A coworker taught me to knit in my 20’s. A lot of work goes into sweaters, more than enough for magic. And I am a writer. I channel magic through language. “U R O K” is raised in Morse code on the left sleeve of my sweater. It works to keep me calm. So does the fit of the sweater. And the elk prancing across the yoke. Magic is made of many things.

Life and art are intrinsically linked, and the magic of this life belongs equally to the magic in my stories. So I wrote about a person who makes the most fantastic objects in fiction, and I gave them the greatest power I know of; the power to create.

Their story will be a part of the Artemis Rising month at Cast of Wonders. It’s going live on the 25th of this month. It involves windchimes made of banshee skulls and swords forged from the iron draw out of dragons blood. Much work goes into collecting dragon’s blood; more magical even than sweaters.

I plan to continue their story beyond the short featured at Cast of Wonders, and I’m telling myself that I’ll need more skills for making. Block printing, sand casting, maybe even some welding!

Well, maybe I’ll start with the block printing… must remember to set aside time to write 😉